Plea for SL pensioners abroad

Since New Zealand has no Sri Lankan embassy, the Sri Lankan embassy in Australia at Canberra, always sent my pension directly each month to the local ANZ bank. No commission was deducted either in Sri Lanka or the ANZ local bank at that time. I only had to send a life certificate, properly signed and certified once every three months, to the Canberra office. They made the necessary arrangements with the Sri Lankan Pensions Department. 

In 2015 things changed. Our pensions were unceremoniously stopped. I was asked to open an account in a Sri Lankan bank (four bank branches were chosen by the Yahapalana government) although I was living in New Zealand.  I was compelled to open this Sri Lankan bank account only in my name – no joint names were allowed, and it had no ATM facilities. I was asked to send the life certificates and money transfer form, each month to this Sri Lankan bank. For each transaction, the Sri Lankan bank deducts a commission, and when it arrives in New Zealand, the local ANZ bank takes NZ $15 also. I hardly had anything to my hand because I am an old pensioner who retired when government salaries were very low. Then I began to withdraw my pension every 3 months because I would then be able to save on the commissions from both banks. 

On top of this, I had to send 3 forms properly filled to the IRD (Sri Lanka) and only then would the IRD authorise the Sri Lankan bank to release my pension. This is pure harassment to old pensioners. The earlier system of receiving our pensions from the embassy existed even during the time of the war. My plea is to revert back to this. Then, us poor pensioners will receive our full pensions at the end of each month, with NO deduction from either bank.

Dealing with the Sri Lankan banks is very stressful. The bank into which my pension goes, only accepts forms posted from New Zealand with the New Zealand postal stamp. If it is lost in the post, when there are postal strikes in Sri Lanka, I have to send all documents all over again, which has happened many times to me. 

Please help the overseas senior pensioners and let us return back to the embassy system. 

PEARL S DASSANAYAKE